Cosmo Tank Game Boy Developer: Asuka Technologies Publisher: Atlus Co. By: GammaBetaAlpha ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Table of Contents -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ How to Play [HOWT] Walkthrough [WALK] Donations/Amazon [DONT] Contact Info [CONT] ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- How to Play -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [HOWT] Cosmo Tank is a game that combines three different modes of play as you move about the game. Part of the game takes place on a bland top-down 2D overfield, in which your tank, designated Tiger Alpha-1, can move around in the four cardinal directions and four directional directions. In this mode, you can shoot at enemies that show up on the map and collect some power-ups. Military bases are littered across the six planets you visit: several of them will recharge your shields to full health, others are useless, and some serve as launching pads to go to other planets from. The second mode in Cosmo Tank, and where its real meat is in, is a first-person dungeon crawler view. When you get into a battle, you do not engage in your typical dungeon crawler fight, however: instead, what you do is basically a first-person shooter, but you cannot actually move around. What you do get is a 360 rotational view: to dodge an enemy's shot, you have to move your VIEW out of the way. If you do not see the bullet coming at you, then you will not take damage (hence perversing the Schroedinger's Cat experiment). 3D mode is where the majority of the boss fights will take, as well as the final boss of each planet, which are designated as 'Life Cores' within the game. Other bosses exist as well on each planet: Control Towers will give up a dungeon map when defeated, while Energy Core bosses lose energy, which weaken the Life Core bosses and make them easier to defeat. The final mode is a simple shoot-em-up genre that is vertically scrolling. If you have played any shmup in your life, it should be fairly easy to pick up and play, with only a single boss near the end of the game in this mode. Controls -------- A - Bomb B - Shoots out a bullet (Hold) - Charges up a bullet (when you have a Level 2 or 3 laser) D-Pad - Move around, face a direction (2D, shoot-em-up) - Rotate your point of view (3D) Up/Down + Left/Right - Diagonally move around, face a direction (2D) Start - Open up your menu screen (2D, 3D) --------- Power-Ups --------- Cylinder - Extra Bomb (Max 10 carry at any time) P-Cylinder - Powers up your laser with every 10 carries, up to Level 4 L-Cylinder - Restores a significant amount of health L-Block - Restores a small amount of health Furthermore, your tank can get a few power-ups throughout the game. If you destroy 100 enemies, your tank will get an extra bar of health, up to 500 EXP and five extra bars. The Shield Unit can be obtained on Gadam, the Hover Unit on Monoa, and the Pulse Unit on Aquel. The order listed in this walkthrough is recommended as the Hover and Shield Units are helpful or necessary to have on other planets. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Walkthrough -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [WALK] To get to a specific planet, search the following codes using CTRL + F to get to that point. Desa [DESA] Monoa [MONO] Aquel [AQUE] Gadam [GADA] DN-1 [DN-1] Gidoro [GIDO] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Planet Desa -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [DESA] ------ 2D ------ You will deploy at the first of three bases on this planet. If your shields are ever at anything other than full health and you come back here, the base shall restore your shields completely. Start by going north, and fending off the ant robots. If you want, stick around and destroy many of them until you hit 100 robots destroyed. Once you do that, your tank will gain an extra bar of life going from 7 up to 8. You can also try to get a few Bomb drops from the robots (the bombs specifically will be the flashing football-shaped pickup). The football-shaped pick-up with a P in it is a Power Unit. If you get 10 of these, your laser will increase in power. This is not important right out here where all enemies are destroyed in one shot, but it will be useful very shortly. The football-shaped L pick-up restores a large amount of the tank's life, while the block L gives only a small amount back. Head west from here, and then north to another base. Go in between the two sides to get a hint about an upcoming obstacle. Continue northeast from here along a narrow neck of path until you come to a wall. Press the A button to set off a bomb that shall destroy the wall for a few seconds, allowing you to pass. Continue north and go right a bit at the end to find one last base that will also restore your shields completely. Now, go up to the wall here, and you should encounter a sort of black spider robot. The black spider will take numerous hits to destroy, but once it is down, you are guaranteed to get a Power cylinder (obtain 10 to upgrade your laser). You can get a few black spiders here before they run out and switch to normal enemies, so stick around and grind it out. Do not worry too much about taking a hit, as you can always use the nearby base to restore your shields. As for trying to dodge, just take a shot, then move left or right a bit and then face north to hit it again: it will follow you behind without firing off a shot. After, head west and into a cave entrance to make your first transition of the game into 3D. ------ 3D ------ B From the entrance, go straight north. On the | | C way there, you will encounter at least one enemy. To | |_| | A - Entrance fight the foes in the first person perspective, you | ___| B - Energy Core must aim the cursor at the altitude they are at (so | | C - Exit at the ground for ground enemies and air for air | | enemies). You must shoot them several times to A destroy the robot. Now, as for how to dodge the robot's attacks, you do not really 'dodge' them per se. Rather, what happens is that in your first-person mode, you spin around so that the tank is not facing the bullet that the robot sent out at you. As long as you do not see the bullet, it does not harm you. So if a bullet is shot at you and you do not see it, does it hurt you? No. A bit like Schroedinger's cat, even. Note that even having the shot right on the edge of your screen view is sufficient. As for harming the enemy itself, here is a trick: aim your cursor slightly to the right of where the robot is, and then move right and keep firing. If the enemy rotates in sync with you, you will very slowly lose ground, but should be able to get several shots off it. Once your cursor falls behind the robot, stop, and wait for it to come around to you full cirle again and then shoot at it again. If you are getting frustrated with the battle, you can also end it in one shot with a bomb (which you can be fairly liberal with given how the enemies in 2D practically litter it). Once the robot is destroyed, continue north for a little bit of a mini- boss battle. ----------- Energy Core ----------- The mini-boss, referred to as the Energy Core is not mandatory to defeat. However, in doing so, you make the final boss or Life Core of the planet Desa easier to win against by weakening it. The boss is similar to the enemy robots you fought in the tunnel in the first-person view in that it will shoot bullets at you that you can dodge by not seeing it (or if it is in your peripheral vision). However, unlike the random enemies, it will not move around during the battle. That actually makes it somewhat easier to fight, though the battle may take longer. Get your initial shot off, then turn around to the left or right so that the bullets it shoots out are just at the very peripheral end of your range of sight. As soon as a bullet vanishes, quickly turn around, get a shot off at the boss, then turn around again to dodge it. After several shots, it should be felled rather easily. You can also use a bomb to destroy it instantly. Once you beat the Energy Core, head south and then east and north out into the next 2D area. ------ 2D ------ Outside, if you stick near the beginning, you should face an unlimited amount of black spider robots. If you go too far north, pass of the close-by base that restores your shields, they will switch to regular enemies. You can however head back into the cave and then come out again to face black spiders again. Thus, this is a really useful spot to grind out laser upgrades early on, though you cannot upgrade past Level 3. After you are finished with the spiders, head north, but do so slowly. You should see what are land mines popping in and out. The land mines are actually there all the time: they just happen to not be visible for a while. Keep an eye on the mines while they are still visible, move a short ways on land you are confident is clear of mines, snipe down any enemies before they close to you, and wait for the mines to show up again. From the shield-restoring base, head north, then west until you come to another base. Grab a hint off the base here, then head straight north int another tunnel. ------ 3D ------ D B Start by going north from the entrance | | | | A - Entrance to hit spot B, where you shall fight another | | | | B - Control mini-boss. This one is a bit different from the | |______| | Tower Energy Core you fought previously, but its lone | __ _ | C - Energy Core attack is the same, and it still stands around. | | | | | | D - Item Zone Take care of it, and you will get a map of all | | | | | | E - Life Core of Desa's tunnels that you can pull up with E C A Start. After you defeat the Control Tower, head south, west slightly, and then south again to point C, to fight another Energy Core boss. There is nothing different in fighting this boss than there is from the last Energy Core, so get at it. Once you beat the second Energy Core, head north, then go west again. At this point, you cannot get to point D, so head south to point E, where you shall fight the Life Core. The Life Core is the final boss of this planet, and it shall take many, many hits to take down, even if you successfully annihilated both of the Energy Cores. Furthermore, it is the only one of the three boss types that actually moves around, although it does this at a slow, lumbering walk. One of the best strategies to beat it is to swivel around, shoot at it, then turn away in the direction it is moving. That way, when you turn back to shoot at it again, it takes very little time to do so, and if you screw up and a shot is close to the Cosmo Tank, you can turn in the opposite direction from where it is moving to quickly get the shot out of sight. In any case, as was stated before, it will take a LOT of shots to down the Life Core, so do not be surprised if it takes several minutes to defeat it. After you defeat the boss, you will be taken out into space. Head back to Desa, and re-enter the hole you emerge from. Go north to the room you previously could not access, and head forward in the hallway for some random goodies, including a few bombs. Head back outside via the south entrance. Go to the first base to get a hint on power-ups on the remaining planets, then go to the second base to head back into space. Now, is there an order to the game's remaining planets? To some extent. To conquer Aquel, you need a power-up from Monoa, while Gadam has its own power -up but no need for another planet's power-up, while DN-1 has no power-ups and needs Gadam's power-up. This walkthrough will go in the order of Monoa - > Aquel - > Gadam - > DN-1. ----------- Shoot'em'up ----------- Once you decide on a planet to go to, your tank will morph into a spaceship and you will get into a brief shmup section. This part is not really all that difficult: for the most part, enemies will just wander around the level without really aggressively targeting you, either leaving the screen after a while or going around in circles. You will, however, face a couple of larger spider-like enemies that will take a few hits to down, but you can also use a bomb for an instant kill against them. The segment is rather short, so you should not be in space for more than a few minutes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Planet Monoa -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [MONO] ------ 2D ------ Start by going north. Feel free to wreck enemies on your way north, but if you are at Level 6 with 500EXP, or Level 3 with your laser, do not bother sticking around to fight as you will not be able to upgrade your tank any more by fighting enemies. Once you hit a wall, use a Bomb to destroy it for a few seconds, and progress forward. Use another bomb on the second wall you encounter, then head north slightly before crusing along east to come to another base. Enter the base here to obtain the Hover Unit. The effect of the Hover Unit is entirely automatic, so do not worry about having to press any buttons to use it. Instead, head west and then north, and break into the tunnel here (you could take the east tunnel first but the west one is shorter by a bit). ------ 3D ------ B A - Entrance Head north at the start, then east, and then | | B - Energy Core north again. In here, you will face an Energy _____| | C - Exit Core boss. There is nothing new to this battle, | ___ | so take out the Energy Core boss in short order. Once | | | | you are done, go south to exit back out onto the overworld | | | | again. A C ------ 2D ------ Outside, you will face off against another large-sized foe over and over again, much like the spider-robots on Desa. Fortunately, they do not leave behind Laser Power-Ups when defeated: instead, they leave bombs, which are much more useful for taking care of enemies when cruising around. Anyways, quickly go north and check into the base to get your shields completely restored. Head back down a little bit, then go east and south into a second tunnel. ------ 3D ------ A A denotes the spot where you came in, and the exit C | | will drop you off just north of where you got the Hover Unit ___| |___ from (so obviously no need to go down to C). | _ _ | A - Entrance Head straight south from A to fight an Energy | |_|B|_| | B - Energy Core Core in the middle of the tunnel. Once you are |___ ___| C- Exit done fighting, make sure you are heading north | | on your compass and turn back to head back to A and | | exit. C ------ 2D ------ Go west. Power your shields up again if you need to at the one base, then head north. Use a bomb to blow down the wall, then continue north and into the third and last tunnel in Monoa. ------ 3D ------ _____________ D__ ________E From point A, the entrance, head | | |C| east and north to defeat the Control Tower. | |___| | A - Entrance Head south, west, and south after the battle | ___ | B - Energy Core to fight the Energy Core. Go back outside | | | | C - Control Tower afterwards if you need to go to the base and |B| | | D - Item Zone restore your shields, then go north and east ____| | E - Life Core from where the Energy Core was to fight the A______| Life Core. Although the Energy Core and Control Tower bosses are the same, the Life Core boss is different. This time the boss will only have a head to start that can be damaged, but will occasionally pop up with four scale body parts. When this occurs, you can shoot the body to make it take damage. Not much difference other than that. Once you are done, return back to Monoa and go to the Item Zone for a few items, before returning to spot E and taking the launch pad off into space. ----------- Shoot'em'up ----------- Not much difference here since the last segment. Early on you will encounter a few asteroids - you can dodge them since they go down in a straight line path, or you can shoot them up with a couple of blasts for a Bomb drop. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Planet Aquel -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [AQUE] ------ 2D ------ Right away, you may notice that Aquel's terrain is dominated by water. From your position, head east to the southeast corner of the map, fending off the aliens on your way there. From the hint pad in the southeast, go slightly north and into a tunnel. ------ 3D ------ B C D E | | | | | | | | A - Entrance You will start off at point A, | |__| |__| |__| | B - Exit the entrance. Head north, then east, and |____ _______ | C - Control then all the way north until you hit the | | | | Tower first of two Energy Core bosses in this | |_______| | D - Energy Core segment. After the battle is over, go |____ ____| E - Energy Core south, west slightly, and then north | | again to fight another Energy Core. A Proceed south afterwards and then west and north up the next hallway to take on the Control Tower. As always, they are entirely the same as the Energy Cores and Control Towers before them. When you beat the Control Tower, you will have a sort of egg left over. Shoot it to get some talk from an investigator. Once done fighting all three bosses, take point B for the exit to head outside. ------ 2D ------ Head straight north from where you exit. Beware, however, because this base has an enemy inside it, so you will have to face an impromptu boss in 2D mode. Now, that said, the insect boss can be rather annoying, as it takes a gigantic amount of hits to kill, just like every boss in this game. However, there is an easy to track pattern to dodging its lone attack of sending out its cutters, so listen up. The insect boss will send out its cutters that will track your Cosmo Tank from two positions: either it will throw them out when it is at the top of the map, or it will throw them out from the center of the map. The cutters will follow your tank for a brief while, then return to the insect. The insect boss will then go to the position opposite of the one it was just in (if it was in the center, it will go to the top, and vice versa). When it is in the top section, stay right at the bottom center of the map. The cutters will stop just shy of where the tank is. Once they go back up, follow along with it to shoot at the insect's face, then quickly retreat before the insect moves to the center of the screen. Once the insect is in the center of the map, things get a bit trickier. If you go to either corner right away, the boomerang cutters WILL hit you. However, if you WAIT, until just after it throws the boomerang cutters, and then go to either corner, it will NOT hit you. It is IMPORTANT that you wait however, because bolting even a fraction of a second early can still get you hit. As soon as the boomerangs return to the insect boss, turn around and pound it for several hits before returning to the bottom center of the screen. With the insect boss defeated, you will get the Pulse Unit, which allows you to fire off a single mega-laser-shot by pressing and holding B to charge it before firing. Proceed to fly WEST over the water for a lengthy period of time until you hit the northwest corner of the map. Stop off at the base here to recharge your shields, then enter the nearby tunnel to the north and west for the second cave on Aquel. ------ 3D ------ ________ D__ ___E A - Entrance Proceed north and then left to start off | | B - Energy Core the dungeon, and fight off an Energy Core. | | C - Control Tower From there, continue east and destroy a __| |___ D - Item Zone Control Tower for the map. Afterwards, head B__ ___C E - Life Core north up the main hallway to the end and then | | go east into the Life Core room. | | A Now, the boss of Aquel is kind of weird in difficulty. It is a large robot that will propel itself around the fighting arena at basically the exact same speed as your tank does. This actually gives you an edge, since you can basically turn and keep in the exact same position as it is and fire away at it while all the shots it fires at you will end up on your peripheral vision and not do any harm. However, you need to be very careful, as the boss will often stop, flicker around the screen, and then come at you from the other side. Whenever it stops, STOP in turn with it so you do not accidentally run into one of its rocket-powered projectiles. Instead, wait for it to come around again to where you are and then rotate around again while persistently firing at it. That said, for the first part, you should shoot at its two crab-like legs. When you destroy one of them, it will slow down significantly. I am not entirely sure if you can destroy or damage the head without destroying its legs first, however, but you may as well destroy the legs. After the battle is over, return to the planet, then head to the Life Zone to stock up on goodies. After, go back to the Life Core exit and go east for a lengthy trek, then head back into space and make your way to the planet Gadam. ----------- Shoot'em'up ----------- Same thing as before, so just truck on until you make your way through space and end up at Gadam. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Planet Gadam -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [GADA] ------ 2D ------ Start the planet off by going north, then west when you first have the chance, and then south past some rock walls. Ignore the tunnel you after a short bit and instead dock off at the base to get yourself a Shield Unit. Head north just a slight bit and then head into the tunnel. ------ 3D ------ _____ | ___C A - Entrance From where you start off at point A, head north | |___ B - Energy Core and east into the room with the Energy Core boss. | ___B C - Exit Take it out, then head back west, then proceed | | north and east again to go back out into the main | | overworld. A ------ 2D ------ From where you are at, head south along the map until you hit a base. Be careful before you enter because you will have to fight another insect 2D boss. Fortunately, unlike the insect boss on Aquel, the insect boss here does not have attacks that track you. Instead, it spits out two to four bullets at a time sideways or at a diagonal. When it is at the top of the screen, fire at it, then move to the side, but not to a corner: instead, wait for it to fire, then move down to get out of the way. If you are not right in the corner but a little north of it, the bullets will come at the same alignment as the Cosmo Tank, letting you move south to avoid them. After you win, go into the base you just rescued for a shield recharge, then head north, west and north again to the northwest corner of the map to fight a second insect boss. Recharge your shields up here again after, then go south, east and then north to the tunnel you exited out of earlier after fighting the first Energy Core. Head STRAIGHT north from your current position and avoid the quicksand pools that are around, as well as the circular shadows they leave behind when they momentarily disappear. Stop off at the base to restore your shields, then head east into another tunnel. ------ 3D ------ E C A - Entrance From the start, proceed north slightly, | | | | B - Energy Core then head right and up to fight an Energy | | | | B C - Control Core boss. Head back down, then left and north | |__| | | | Tower to eliminate a Control Tower boss. Go back | __ | | | D - Item Zone outside and use the nearby base if necessary | | | | | | E - Life Core to restore your shields, then head up to the | | | |__| | point marked E on the map. D | __ | | | | | The Life Core on Gadam is a rather interesting boss, and | | |_| only the second boss after the Aquel Life Core who changes A in form after taking some damage. Unlike Aquel, however, Gadam's Life Form does not slow: instead, after you shoot it enough, the crab-like robot will retract its legs and start to swivel around far more quickly. When it begins to hover, you need to pay more attention and be sure to swing the other way if it starts to fire to close to comfort for you. It will also move slightly faster than the Aquel Life Core, meaning that it will actually overtake you when going at its maximum speed. Other than that, there is one other important thing to notice: Gadam's Life Core shoots bullets from both its left side and right side. It cannot fire from both sides at the same time, but it should be noted nonetheless, lest you expect a bullet from the right side and get a bullet from the left that strikes at your middle. Once the battle is done, retreat back into the tunnel and head to the Item Zone, before heading back outside from whence you came and loop around clockwise to get to the launching pad, making sure to avoid a couple of quicksand spots. With only one planet left to conquer, head off to DN-1. ----------- Shoot'em'up ----------- Same old, same old. Nothing new here. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Planet DN-1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [DN-1] ------ 2D ------ From where you start off, go north, then northeast and finally up into a tunnel. If you did not go to Gadam beforehand, you will be fried before you hit the tunnel, as you need the Shield Unit to pass the field in the north. ------ 3D ------ C | | A - Entrance Nothing really exciting here. Go up __| |___ B - Energy Core and take out both of the Energy Core bosses, and D__ ___B C - Energy Core then take the west exit out at point D to | | D - Exit continue onto the next segment of DN-1. | | | | | | A ------ 2D ------ From where you start, head north, but go slowly. Occasionally, mines will appear on the field, but when they go away, they are becoming invisible, not actually going away: make sure to watch out for these and navigate around. If you do not have the Shield Unit, drive around the cracked segments of ground. After some time, you should come to a base that will recharge your shields. Once you are done, continue north into the next cave segment. ------ 3D ------ B C D | | | | | | A - Entrance Head north and start off by | |__| |__| | B - Energy Core taking the west of the three branch |____ ____| C - Control Tower routes to destroy the Energy Core, then | | D - Exit go up the middle route in turn to take | | out the Control Tower. Following the destruction | | of both mini-bosses in this cavern, head up to exit D to go back | | outside into DN-1's next overfield. A ------ 2D ------ Step out of the hole and stop off at the nearby base for a message. Head north from here up the right side: if you are at full health, do not worry too much about hitting a mine as a base that shall restore your shields is near the end. Get your shields redone and then head down the hole into the last tunnel. ------ 3D ------ _______ _____ D__ __E |C _ | A - Entrance Start by going north from the | | | | | | B - Energy Core entrance and then west to fight the __| |_____| |_| | C - Control Control Tower boss. Head south from B______________ | Tower that room and then all the way west to | | D - Item Zone take on the Energy Core. Finally, A E - Life Core continue on north for a showdown with the Life Core. Depending on how well you play, the Life Core here may be actually rather easy. Start off by ignoring the boss in the middle. Instead, charge up your laser shot and look to either side of the boss to see white little men walking up to the Life Core. Shoot them with the charged shot to destroy them instantly, and repeat this until a fly-like robot comes off the Life Core's head. When this happens, the main body of the Life Core itself will no longer shoot out ammunition at you: instead, the fly-robot will start shooting at you. The fly-robot will swivel around to about sixty degrees each way from the Life Core, constantly swivelling at you. This can actually be rather useful, because once it flies away from the Life Core, the Life Core has no protection whatsoever, allowing you to get in several shots at the main body before the fly comes back (in which case you move your view to avoid its shots, then quickly move back to the Life Core when permitted). The Life Core here should go down far quicker than some earlier bosses. After you defeat the Life Core, destroy the egg to obtain the Sensor Unit. When prompted, stay on DN-1, pick some items up from the Item Zone, then head outside and dash east to the launching pad. As you have conquered the five planets, a sixth one will now open up. Head to the planet Gidoro. ----------- Shoot'em'up ----------- The early portion of the shmup section is the same as always. Make your way through it, and you will fight the planet Gidoro itself. Gidoro, which vaguely resembles a crustacean, will stay in one spot while the Cosmo Tank can still move around, so while it is on a 2D Map, you have that to take advantage of. However, it has several different shooting paths that it can send bullets out, including two diagonal paths and four different widths between bullets that go straight down the screen, so you need to be extremely careful. The best way to go around this is to stick to the side, and charge up a laser shot. Once it shoots out a diagonal shot, quickly weave into the center, shoot out your charge shot, then move out as soon as it shoots straight south again. This will take a lot of time, but if you try to shoot persistently you will most likely get swarmed by bullets. After Gidoro takes a significant amount of time, it will stop, allowing you to dock on board the fortress planet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Planet Gidoro -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [GIDO] ------ 2D ------ From where you start off, go north, then northeast a bit, and then northwest to find yourself a station that shall recharge your shields. You should hold a charge at all times while making your way there and let it loose on any of the larger enemies that come at you. Once you finally can recharge, head north from the energy base to head into a tunnel. ------ 3D ------ _________ A_______ | A - Entrance Start off at A, the entrance, and then | __ | | B - Life Core loop around clockwise to where point C is. Go | |__| | | C - Exit north from here and loop around clockwise again | |B | | to hit B in an inner chamber. Now, on Gidoro | |____| | you will have to rebattle the Life Cores of the five C_________| planets you previously visited. In Point B's case, you shall be taking on the boss of Desa again. The following is a copy and paste of the strategy for Desa's Life Core. One of the best strategies to beat it is to swivel around, shoot at it, then turn away in the direction it is moving. That way, when you turn back to shoot at it again, it takes very little time to do so, and if you screw up and a shot is close to the Cosmo Tank, you can turn in the opposite direction from where it is moving to quickly get the shot out of sight. Afterwards, loop around back to point C and exit outside onto the overfield again. ------ 2D ------ Outside, go straight up. There is a set of five mines to the right of where you exit, so you must head up first to avoid them. From there, go east a bit and then into another tunnel. ------ 3D ------ A | |___ | _ | A - Entrance You will emerge at A, the entrance. A is also | | | | B - Life Core the point you will be exiting after defeating the B | | C - Exit Life Core, as exit C will bring you back to the field ___| | you first landed on when coming to Gidoro. The Life Core C_____| boss in this area is the same as Aquel's boss, so this will be a copy and paste of that Life Core's strategy. It is a large robot that will propel itself around the fighting arena at basically the exact same speed as your tank does. This actually gives you an edge, since you can basically turn and keep in the exact same position as it is and fire away at it while all the shots it fires at you will end up on your peripheral vision and not do any harm. However, you need to be very careful, as the boss will often stop, flicker around the screen, and then come at you from the other side. Whenever it stops, STOP in turn with it so you do not accidentally run into one of its rocket-powered projectiles. Instead, wait for it to come around again to where you are and then rotate around again while persistently firing at it. That said, for the first part, you should shoot at its two crab-like legs. When you destroy one of them, it will slow down significantly. I am not entirely sure if you can destroy or damage the head without destroying its legs first, however, but you may as well destroy the legs. Once you have destroyed the Life Core, head straight back north exit out entrance A. ------ 2D ------ From where you come out onto the overfield, head all the way east to the end of the map, watching out for a couple of cross-shaped minefields. Once you make it over, head off into the next tunnel. ------ 3D ------ ____ B__ | D You will have two Life Cores in this | | | | maze here, so make sure to kill off a few robots | | | | A - Entrance to replenish your health in-between battles if ___| |___| | B - Life Core you need to. In any case, if you make your way | _ _____| C - Life Core to the center and then west, you will battle | | | | D - Exit Monoa's Life Core boss at Point B. Going south | | | |__ from the center and then east will pit you up | | |____C against Gadam's Life Core boss for the second time. As A always, copy and paste of boss strategies, Monoa's first. (Monoa) This time the boss will only have a head to start that can be damaged, but will occasionally pop up with four scale body parts. When this occurs, you can shoot the body to make it take damage. Not much difference other than that. (Gadam) The Life Core on Gadam is a rather interesting boss, and only the second boss after the Aquel Life Core who changes in form after taking some damage. Unlike Aquel, however, Gadam's Life Form does not slow: instead, after you shoot it enough, the crab-like robot will retract its legs and start to swivel around far more quickly. When it begins to hover, you need to pay more attention and be sure to swing the other way if it starts to fire to close to comfort for you. It will also move slightly faster than the Aquel Life Core, meaning that it will actually overtake you when going at its maximum speed. Other than that, there is one other important thing to notice: Gadam's Life Core shoots bullets from both its left side and right side. It cannot fire from both sides at the same time, but it should be noted nonetheless, lest you expect a bullet from the right side and get a bullet from the left that strikes at your middle. Once you have defeated both Life Cores, head east and north from the center to exit out onto the last overfield map of the game. ------ 2D ------ Go north from the entrance and stop off at the first base you see to capture it and restore your shields energy. Continue north from there and you should come to a second base. Once you enter, you will come to a crustacean boss, specifically the type with head pincers. A paste of the strategy for this boss follows. You need to beat it to access the last tunnel, in any case. The insect boss can be rather annoying, as it takes a gigantic amount of hits to kill, just like every boss in this game. However, there is an easy to track pattern to dodging its lone attack of sending out its cutters, so listen up. The insect boss will send out its cutters that will track your Cosmo Tank from two positions: either it will throw them out when it is at the top of the map, or it will throw them out from the center of the map. The cutters will follow your tank for a brief while, then return to the insect. The insect boss will then go to the position opposite of the one it was just in (if it was in the center, it will go to the top, and vice versa). When it is in the top section, stay right at the bottom center of the map. The cutters will stop just shy of where the tank is. Once they go back up, follow along with it to shoot at the insect's face, then quickly retreat before the insect moves to the center of the screen. Once the insect is in the center of the map, things get a bit trickier. If you go to either corner right away, the boomerang cutters WILL hit you. However, if you WAIT, until just after it throws the boomerang cutters, and then go to either corner, it will NOT hit you. It is IMPORTANT that you wait however, because bolting even a fraction of a second early can still get you hit. As soon as the boomerangs return to the insect boss, turn around and pound it for several hits before returning to the bottom center of the screen. After you win the battle, your shields should be automatically restored. Head straight up to go inside the last cavern on Gidoro. ------ 3D ------ _____________ | _________ | A - Entrance Start off by heading north from the | | |C| | | B - Life Core entrance, and then take on the Control Tower. | | | | | | C - Control Go back south and then east and down to take | | | | | | Tower on one last Energy Core (you need not fight | |__| |____| | D - Hint DN-1's Life Core). Head back up and left and | __ __ | | E - Life Core south to point D for a hint on how to defeat | | | | | | | (Final Boss) the last Life Core (you will have to fight |D| | | |B|E| another Control Tower to do so). Go back A outside at this point to restore your shields if you have to, then head around the tunnel to point E to take on Gidoro's Life Core. Now, Gidoro's Life Core will be extremely, extremely, annoying. If you thought other bosses could take damage, Gidoro practically absorbs it. It should not be surprising if it takes you five to ten minutes, possibly even longer to destroy it. There are three discernable stages to the Life Core's form, but before we get into that, Gidoro's attack pattern should be noted. Unlike other bosses, Gidoro has two cannons on its main body, one on the left side and one on the right side. It will shoot a bullet out of one cannon, and then switch to the cannon on the other side. More importantly to note, each cannon will shoot towards the right side twice, then they will reverse direction and shoot to the left twice. That distinction should be made, because it becomes important when you are attacking the Life Core's main body. If you are on the left side, wait until the left cannon shoots right for the first time, move in, and let off a charged shot, before immediately pivoting back out with the cannon on the edge of your viewing screen. This is a slow approach, but is a vital one. What should also be noted is that the center of Gidoro (about its 'chest' area) will charge up and shoot out a star-shaped bullet. When this happens, GET OUT OF THE WAY regardless of whether it throws you into a foot-ball shaped bullet's path. The star-shaped bullet will knock you out back into the tunnel, and you shall have to repeat the battle all over again. The chest can be damaged during the course of the battle. I am unsure if it occurs all the time no matter where on the Life Core's body you hit or only if you repeatedly hammer away at the chest itself often enough. It is also possible to shatter the glass dome on the robot's head: what effect this has, I am unsure of. Anyways, to start the battle off, on the very ends of the Life Core, it has two hands, one on each side. Start the battle by staying off to the far side of whichever end you are on, charge up a laser shot, move in and shoot it at the hand. Repeat until the hand is destroyed. Now, carefully wait for the bullets before moving: the best time to do this is when the cannon closer to you shoots OUTWARD for the second time, because the opposite cannon will also shoot outward following that shot, allowing you to clear quickly to the other side. Shoot the other hand then until it is destroyed. Following that, you will need to take on the main body, and you should do it by charging up laser shots and letting it hit the Life Core. Now, the Life Core is not just vulnerable at the center: take a look at its spindly 'legs'. Wherever the joint of the legs juts at the top of the screen, any part of the leg between those knee joints and the body itself is vulnerable, so you do not need to hit dead center. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Donations/Amazon -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [DONT] I don't really care too much about donations, but if you are feeling generous, feel free to send one via PayPal to gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com Alternatively, if you ever order any items from Amazon.com, go to the link below. You do not have to buy anything right away, but (if you do not clear browser cookies often) any items you buy within the next 90 days will count as a 'referral order' to me, meaning I get anywhere from 4-6% as a referral/affiliate payment of what you ordered (ie. order $100 worth of stuff, I get $4-6 from Amazon.com) www.amazon.com/?&camp=212361&linkCode=wsw&tag=raofavigafa-20&creative=391881 Other than that, considering this FAQ is for an obscure old game, if you have any other obscure old games that you do not play anymore, consider sending them to me (I will even pay the shipping cost!). I write FAQs for plenty of obscure old games with no FAQs, and having a physical copy of the game (and even better, a manual) is superior to not. You can email me if interested at gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Contact Info -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [CONT] Although I believe I have found everything there is to find in this game, there is occasionally the possibility of some super secret level in an obscure game that was never found because it was too obscure, or the like. If you have anything that you feel needs to be includes, feel free to email me at gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com If you have any other information to contribute or notice any errors, again, shoot me a notice at gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com If you wish to host this guide, or use information from it, consider the FAQ semi-public domain: you can host it without asking and derive information from it word-for-word if you wish, but keep the document unchanged if hosting it and give credit where due if using information ________________________________________________________________________________ ©2011 GammaBetaAlpha FAQs